


Primogeniture

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [444]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 23:58:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10842177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: madilayn askedCan I ask for a prompt? An awkward date with Lady P means Scott has something confirmed that is a surprise to him





	1. Chapter 1

The easy comradery of “Scott and Penny” had vanished with the dawn.

They were both adults, Scott kept telling himself.  They were adults, and it was a mutual moment of passion borne out of exhaustion and adrenaline and one glass too many of celebratory champagne too far from home.

But when Scott had woken with a mouthful of Penny’s hair and her naked hip warm under his hand, something had changed regardless.  It had been the most awkward breakfast he’d ever sat through, and he’d never been more grateful for an emergency call in his life.

And so life resumed.

There was no break in the pattern of calls between the nominal head of IR and their London agent.  Their work never skipped a beat, for all that his name on her lips had the same matching awkward cadence of hers on his.

He knew they should talk, clear the air, put that night behind them.  When the invitation to London came in on his personal line, it felt like they were once again moving on the same beat. Scott almost skipped up the stairs to the Creighton-Ward seat, ready to have this done.

He felt underdressed for the fine linen on the table, the candle burning in its silver holder.  “This feels like a date?” he tried to quip as Penny fidgeted with her ring across the table from him.

“Well, we did that backwards then.”  And there it is, the acknowledgement of what happened between them.

“Penny, about that night…” Scott began, leaning forward.  He had rehearsed this the entire flight to the England.  “I’m…”

“Pregnant,” Penny said, quiet and decisive.

Scott started so hard the silverware rattled on the table.  Penny was still, her eyes downcast.  “Well,” Scott managed, mouth dry. He reached across the table, laying his hand over hers, feeling the rhythm of everything collapse and fall silent.  “Okay then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> thebaconsandwichofregret asked  
> Following on from your incredible fic for Madilayn's prompt, how about Scott proposing because it's The Right Thing To Do (maybe a Five Times That fic if you have the time)

1) Scott went to his knee, right there next to the too-formal table, without ring or plan or anything except the word “pregnant” bouncing between his ears.

Penny had laughed, not unkindly, and covered his grasping hand with her own.  “No,” she said sweetly.  “Now get up, we’ve got things to plan.”

2)  Penny’s throwing up, and she’s not happy about it.  “This is all your fault,” she grumbled as he brushed her hair back for a better hold as she retched into the porcelain bowl.

“I’m a horrible person,” he agreed equanimously, rubbing her back between her shoulder blades.  It had taken all his persuasion to convince her to relocate to the island, but he’s glad she’s here and not alone in that rambling mansion. “But may I remind you it was your final decision to go ahead.”

“Well, darling,” she replied weakly but gamely, resting her cheek on her folded arms.  “We are bound to make a beautiful, beautiful baby, and I am shallow enough to want that.”

“You could still make a beautiful bride.  We have time.”

Penny groaned, braced herself against the bowl, and resumed throwing up.

3) The gossip columns have finally picked up on Penny’s expanding waistline, empire dresses only able to conceal so much.  “Lady Penelope, where’s the father?” they asked, shoving recorders into her face.

Penny is radiant in pregnancy, her shoulders back, her belly a powerful curve even in the frame of a media scrum.  “He’s around,” she demurred, pushing past them for the safety of the car.

Scott’s waiting up for her, the television tuned to something innocuous and not the looping commentary of the paparazzi.  “So, I’m around, am I?” he asked as Penny sank onto the seat next to him, stealing a pillow for her back as she swung her feet up onto his lap.  He began to knead her arches, finding all the knots.  “I have both a multinational and a rescue organisation to run,” he continued airily, just to see her smile at his teasing.  “I can’t be expected to wait on your every whim.”

“And yet here you are,” she points out, eyes closed.  This close, she looks tired under her glow, and not for the first time Scott wished he could help ease her burdens.

“Well, I have a question…”

“No, I’m not marrying you,” she cut him off, but she’s smiling.  After all these months, it’s become a game between them.  “But that doesn’t mean you can stop,” she added, waving one imperial hand at her feet.

He resumed his massage.

4) “I didn’t ask for this!”  As soon as he yelled it, he wanted to reach out and grab the words right out of the air and stuff them back down his throat.  Maybe he’d choke on them, and it’d serve him right.

“I did?” Penny is incandescent with rage, her entire body trembling with it.  “One night and my world is changed forever, Scott.” She steps in close, close enough that Scott can feel the heat radiating off her skin.  She’d been complaining of being too hot all week, and now he can feel it too.  “You think this is how I imagined it? Being a single mother, excoriated in the media, my entire family tutting at me every time they see this?”  She patted her belly.  “Because news flash, Scott, this isn’t part of my ten year plan.”

Scott’s rage is too hot to sustain; he can’t even remember why they started yelling.  “But we’re doing this,” he told her.  “Emphasis on the we.”

She sighs, the fight going out of her in the slow slump of her shoulders.  “We are,” she agreed.  “And I appreciate it.  I couldn’t do it without you.”

Scott drew her into a hug.  “Ring and a celebrant are there if you want them,” he whispered.  “Just say the word and I’ll say I do.”

Penny very deliberately said nothing, just held him tighter.

5)  “Are you her husband?”  The nurse has a clipboard and a harried expression. 

“Father,” Scott clarifies, hating the way the nurses’ expression subtly changed.

“Well, this way, sir.  Things are just kicking off, but babies come at their own time.”

Scott’s dress shoes squeak on the linoleum; he’d been wrapping up a board meeting when the message reached him, and he had no memory of getting from there to here.

He strips off his suit jacket, drops it on a chair as he rounds the curtain half-drawn to shield the bed from the open door.

Penny’s eyes are closed, her breathing fast and even, sweat already beading along her brow.  “Hey,” he whispered, sliding into the chair drawn up to the bed, his hand finding hers.

“I think,” Penny said, voice airy and taut. “That our kid is ready to go.”

Scott squeezed her fingers.  “Last chance to make your ancestors proud and give birth a married woman.”

Penny’s chuckle turned into a groan as another contraction hit.  “You know,” she said as the nurses began to flock around them.  “I think it rather appropriate your kid is a _literal_ bastard.”

Scott grins and kisses her forehead as the doctors start to tell her to push.


End file.
